Brown sees signs of progress for Sixers as camp wraps up

PHILADELPHIA — Beyond the obvious of having to reconfigure, realign, reassess and revive the downtrodden 76ers, Brett Brown said that he’s also constantly thinking.

He didn’t want to risk overdoing it in training camp. He didn’t want to stop practice sessions every minute to teach a new lesson, or to scold a young player, or to harp on a missed opportunity. But he didn’t want to allow slip-ups to persist, or bad habits to develop, or mistakes to fester.

“Those types of assessments you make between every practice and, when you go to bed, you just try to figure out how to do it better (the next day),” Brown said Wednesday at Saint Joseph’s University, where the Sixers coach and his new team put the wraps on a five-day, eight-practice training camp.

Today, he and the Sixers board a flight across the Atlantic Ocean as they prepare for an eight-day preseason trip through Bilbao, Spain, and Manchester, England, for a pair of exhibitions.

Before the Sixers could set their sights on seeing the sights internationally, or beginning their seven-game preseason slate, Brown put them through a rigorous camp that concluded with a number of injuries. To the Sixers’ benefit, none has been serious. Darius Morris’ broken nose will heal. Spencer Hawes’ and Lavoy Allen’s bum knees will improve, too.

And what Brown and his coaching staff are left with is where next to take their team.

Does the first-year coach think he’s been too hard on the Sixers? Are they ahead of where he thought they’d be developmentally, after eight sessions in the gym? Can he preach any more than he already has?

“I’m always trying to walk that line of avoiding wasting their time by talking all the time,” Brown said. “You want to cut to the chase and get to the point, but you want to teach: ‘Hey, that’s not right. That’s not the way we do it. We just got done telling you this. We showed you in a tape, we showed you on the court. At what point isn’t this enough for me to give you to do it right?’

“There’s a responsibility on their part, too — that fine line of demanding and understanding they’re young and they’re don’t know my accent and throwing this stuff at them. You always walk this crazy balance of what’s enough, how do you say it, positive/negative. It’s just stuff every coach goes through. It’s foreign a little bit for me because of the youth we have. You could stop after every play and say something that’s truthful.”

In total, Brown has seen five days of competitive scrimmaging. He’s seen no guards separate themselves from a pack of backcourt ballhandlers. He’s had to shuffle the deck a bit, seeing a handful of bigs endure bumps and bruises. He’s had players learn to adjust to his New England colloquialisms and accent.

All in all?“Weighing everything,” Brown said, “I think we’re good.”

Really?“From them coming to the gym Sept. 9 (for voluntary workouts), you could show them some things and you were a little further ahead from when camp really began, but to say that after eight practices, you’re going to play an NBA-type game …”

The Sixers, according to Brown, have under their belts a pair of inbounds plays, one from the sideline and one underneath the rim, they have a “semblance of running” and some defensive principles that have been put in place.

Everything else, like his roster, remains a quandary. And a mystery.

The team’s week-plus trip overseas will be anything but a sojourn. The Sixers will practice. And focus. And learn.

“You’re always questioning them and testing them: ‘What does this mean? What does that mean? How do we guard this? How do we guard that?’” Brown said. “At this stage, I think they’ve done a good job. Really. It’s a remarkable job of absorbing a lot in a very short period of time.”

It’s only been eight days. And there are plenty more until opening night.